Parents aren’t always who we think they are.
And if an unexpected revelation is significant enough, it can prompt the re-evaluation of a lifetime’s worth of assumptions.
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| Sparks immediately fly when Alia (Sophia Ali) meets Varun (Rish Shah) at his parents' neighborhood Indian food store. |
The setting is Ruby Hill, New Jersey, a posh suburban oasis of mini-mansions, backyard swimming pools and luxury cars, inhabited solely by wealthy émigrés from India. Everybody gathers for lavish dinner parties hosted by a different family each Saturday: ostensibly to enjoy the groaning tables of rich and exotic foods, but mostly so that the local posse of “aunties” — the neighborhood wives — can indulge in one-upmanship while finding fresh targets to mock, disapprove of, and gossip about.
Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali) grew up in this environment, but a freshman year at UCLA has widened her eyes to the vast melting pot offered by these United States. Returning home for the summer suddenly feels stifling, her honor’s list of pre-med grades overlooked as she’s once again forced to don a sari while offering trays of appetizers and tea like a servile waitress.
The aforementioned “aunties” watch closely, hoping to pounce on the slightest lapse of demureness.
Alia’s father Ranjit (Adil Hussain), whom she adores, is sympathetic to his eldest child’s predicament; he seems willing to let Alia blaze her own trail. But her straight-laced mother, Sheila (Manisha Koirala), is every bit as strict and proper as the rest of the adult women; there’s no doubt she expects her daughter to marry “properly,” perhaps to hunky Ved (Rahul Singh), who definitely shows interest.
Later in the week, when Alia is sent to fetch supplies at a new local Indian foods shop — the name of which gives this film its title — she meets cute with Varun (Rish Shah), the cheerful son of the shopkeepers. Flirty banter briefly ensues. Believing it a friendly gesture toward neighborhood newcomers, she impulsively invites him and his parents, Bhairavi (Deepti Gupta) and Kamlesh (Kamran Shaikh), to the upcoming Saturday soirée.
Big mistake.
The silence that blankets the room, when Varun and his folks arrive at the door, bearing a heartbreakingly humble container of sweets, reeks of censure: What are these common laborers doing here?
Malik’s long, frozen take on this tableau is agonizing.
